Round 1 WAFL Preview

The highly anticipated 2023 WAFL season begins over Easter with three huge match ups on Good Friday and other two on Saturday topped off with Peter German leading his new-look Perth Demons into battle against the team he helped build into a powerhouse, Subiaco.

There's tremendous excitement over the new WAFL season with all 10 teams legitimately coming into it expecting to be strongly competitive whether that's West Perth trying to win back-to-back premierships, Claremont and East Fremantle trying to breakthrough, or Perth, East Perth and West Coast Eagles looking for dramatic improvement.

That sets the stage for a tantalising opening round of the 2023 WAFL season beginning with three matches in Good Friday ranging from Joondalup to Mandurah, and in between.

It's only fitting that the very first game of the season is also a Grand Final rematch between West Perth and Claremont to be held at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium from 1.40pm.

Next up on Good Friday is a battle of two teams with a new coach and both attempting to break back into finals action in 2023 with East Perth playing host to Swan Districts at Leederville Oval.

The last game on Good Friday takes place at 4.10pm at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium. It's now become an annual fixture with Peel Thunder playing host to East Fremantle in a battle of two teams who played finals in 2022.

The other two matches in the opening round of the 2023 season take place on Saturday beginning at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle playing host to the West Coast Eagles from 2.10pm.

The final game of the round could very well be the most fascinating on a number of fronts. 

Peter German had a remarkable four years coaching Subiaco between 2003-06 and now makes his return to the WAFL in charge of Perth in 2023 and he leads the Demons up against the Lions on Saturday evening from 5.10pm at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

READ FULL WAFL SEASON PREVIEW 2023 HERE

 

WEST PERTH v CLAREMONT – FRIDAY 1.40PM
There couldn’t possibly be a better way to start the new WAFL season than a Grand Final rematch between West Perth and Claremont at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium on Good Friday.

The rivalry between the Falcons and Tigers has been a growing one over the course of several seasons and reached fever pitch in what was a memorable Grand Final last year at Leederville Oval.

West Perth ended up prevailing with coach Darren Harris at the helm just two years after leading Claremont into a Grand Final before then being replaced by the returning Ash Prescott.

What resulted was a memorable Grand Final won by West Perth by 12 points in front of a huge crowd at Leederville Oval.

Now it's a fitting opening to the new season on Good Friday with West Perth attempting to begin its premiership defence in winning fashion on the same afternoon they will raise their premiership flag.

Meanwhile, that Grand Final loss will have stuck with everyone at Claremont all summer and now after having to see that flag raised on Friday, the Tigers won't need any added motivation to try and get an early measure of revenge to open 2023.

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – WEST PERTH

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – CLAREMONT

West Perth has selected its team already for Round 1 and from the premiership team from last year, there are only three changes with Zac Langdon, Michael Mallard and Blake Wilhelm the inclusions.

Anton Hamp, Troy Yukich and Sasha Kernutt are the three premiership players who won't be there on Friday while Mark Hutchings and new recruit Bailey Thompson aren’t available.

Aaron Black, Luke Meadows, Ben Johnson, Tyson Moulton, Nathan Alexandre, Keegan Knott, Zac Guadagnin, Dean Munns, Shane Nelson, Aidan Lynch, Mitch Dobson, Sam Rotham, Tristan Hobley, Conal Lynch, Mitch Peirce, Tyler Keitel, Noah Pegoraro, Corey Rundle and Joe Hinder are the West Perth premiership players back in the team for Round 1.

There are more changes at Claremont from last year's Grand Final team with Anthony Treacy, Zac Mainwaring, Joel Western, Jack Maibaum, Teia Miles, Bailey Bennett, Ben Clarke, Talon Delacey, George Graham and Louis Passera all being included into the Round 1 squad.

Going out from last year's Grand Final team are captain Declan Mountford along with Ryan Lim, Jared Hardisty, Timm House, Ben Elliott, Max Spyvee and Alex Manuel.

 

EAST PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS – FRIDAY 2.10PM

East Perth and Swan Districts both enter the 2023 WAFL season with ambitions of dramatic improvement and the work they've put in over the pre-season will be put to test on Good Friday at Leederville Oval.

Both the Royals and Swans showed encouraging signs at times in 2022, but ultimately neither played finals and now with each of them having new coaches at the helm for the new season, they will be hotly motivated to make a winning start.

At one point of the 2022 season, East Perth was sitting at 6-6 and was right in the finals mix. However, the Royals went on to lose the last six matches to end at 6-12 to miss finals for a fourth straight season and ultimately part company with coach Jeremy Barnard.

Since then, East Perth has appointed Ross McQueen as its new coach and the Royals will attempt to begin their climb back up the ladder with a strong showing at home to Swan Districts on Good Friday.

Meanwhile, Swan Districts played finals in 2021 and then for most of 2022 appeared well on track to make it back-to-back finals appearances.

Swans still finished with a solid 10-8 record by the end of the season, but it wasn’t quite enough to make it to finals and in the end, Adam Pickering was relieved of his role of coach and has since been replaced by long-time assistant Andrew Pruyn.

There are now great expectations at Steel Blue Oval for what Swan Districts will be capable of achieving in 2023, but getting off to a good start against East Perth at Leederville Oval on Good Friday will be crucial.

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – EAST PERTH

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – SWAN DISTRICTS

Among the new faces in the Round 1 East Perth squad are key recruits Tom North, Mitch Crowden, Alex Pearce and Liam Tedesco while former Carlton midfielder Harrison McCreadie isn’t quite available to open the season with the Royals.

There's mixed news on the selection front to start the new season with Swan Districts with the black-and-whites welcoming back former Carlton big man Jesse Glass-McCasker to lead the ruck in Round 1 while Jarrod Cameron will also make his return as a small forward.

Exciting youngster Riley Hardeman will also make his league debut for the black-and-whites but returning experienced pair Nathan Blakely and Frank Anderson won't be out there to mark their returns in Round 1, and nor will former Geelong VFL co-captain Jackson McLachlan.

Defensive pair Will Collins and Tony Notte are also among the Swans players who won't be out there to take on the Royals but there's still great expectations over the black-and-whites to open the new season.

 

PEEL THUNDER v EAST FREMANTLE – FRIDAY 4.10PM

Peel Thunder and East Fremantle have now made it an annual event to play one another on Good Friday in Mandurah and the 2023 edition should be fascinating between two teams coming off playing finals in 2022.

There's every reason to expect both teams to be strong contenders once again in the 2023 WAFL season as well so that sets the stage for what should be a tremendous contest on Good Friday at 4.10pm at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium.

Peel finished the 2022 season full of momentum to end up making finals for the first time since their back-to-back premierships of 2016 and 2017. The Thunder went on to beat South Fremantle in an elimination final but then bowed out a week later at the hands of Claremont.

East Fremantle, meanwhile, overcame plenty on the personnel and injury front in 2022 while also not having a home ground, but still ended the season in second position only half a game from top spot to make their finals return for the first time since 2014.

This clash on Good Friday will be the sixth time over the past decade that the two teams have met in Mandurah for the occasion including last year when Peel kicked seven goals to one in the last quarter to come from behind and beat East Fremantle by 32 points.

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – PEEL THUNDER

WAFL SEASON PREVIEW – EAST FREMANTLE

The Peel squad so far named for Round 1 includes Fremantle-listed players Joel Hamling, Corey Wagner, Karl Worner, Neil Erasmus, Josh Corbett, Sam Sturt, Josh Treacy, Tom Emmett, Will Brodie, Hugh Davies, Sebit Kuek and Liam Reidy.

Thunder recruits Matt Payne, Brady Grey and Jacob Blight all will be there for Round 1 against East Fremantle as well while colts premiership star Michael Sellwood will make his league debut as well.

From the East Fremantle team that played in last year's preliminary final, Dillon O'Reilly, Chris Walker, Hugh Dixon, Brayden Lawler, Harry Marsh, Reuben McGuire, Milan Murdock, Sam Collins, Josh Cripps, Tom Joyce, Fraser Turner and Matt Williamson have come into that squad for the Round 1 clash with Peel.

It's a fitting farewell with East Fremantle for Lawler too against his former team on Good Friday. Lawler played 121 games with the Thunder up until the end of 2021 including being part of the premierships of 2016 and 2017, but now makes his WAFL return in 2023 with the Sharks.

Going out from that preliminary final team are Jamie Meade, Jonathon Marsh, Jeremy Goddard, Cody Smith, Ryan Lester-Smith, Jed Hagan, Jack Cleaver and Tom Monaghan.